


Team-Building

by epersonae



Series: The Journal-Keeper [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Averted bar fights, Cleric of Pan means the good weed, Drug Use, Gen, IPRE, Karaoke, Late night diner, No relationships yet but laying lots of foundations, Pool hustling twins, Pre-Canon, Ropes course, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2018-12-16 00:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11817603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: A glimpse at the crew of the Starblaster before their journey as the Institute of Planar Research & Exploration tries to mold them into a team.





	1. Prologue to the Past

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anonymousAlchemist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymousAlchemist/gifts).
  * Inspired by [[DECLASSIFIED] Interview Transcripts, Starblaster Mission](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11531085) by [anonymousAlchemist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymousAlchemist/pseuds/anonymousAlchemist). 



> Oh, mandatory fun/team building activities with co-workers, never not awkward. 
> 
> Should be five chapters altogether, three for the actual IPRE team building, and the first and last about Camp Goodfriend.
> 
> This takes inspiration and probably some details from _Interview Transcripts_ ; I don't think you have to read that to get the references, but you should totally read it because it's hella good.

The tap on the Director’s office door was light but confident, and followed by the entrance of an an orc in khaki, polo shirt, and ponytail. Brad Bradson pushed up his glasses and looked down at his clipboard. Behind her desk, the Director gestured him forward, although there was no chair for him to sit in.

“I’ve finished the research you requested, and I think I’ve found the place. It comes very highly rated and they have enough room for the whole Bureau.”

He handed her a glossy brochure.

“Camp… Goodfriend?”

“The fellow who runs it is a Mister Goodfriend. He’s very enthusiastic about his ability to turn colleagues into friends.”

“That sounds promising. Nice work, Brad.”

“I’ve taken the liberty of getting a contract started for one of the date options that you gave me. He was able to work with our budget through one of the shell companies on the surface. So if you could sign here?” 

Brad turned the clipboard towards her and she scrawled something that might pretend to be a legally-binding signature without dissolving into static.

“If you don’t mind my saying….” She nodded for Brad to continue. “I feel like we have a pretty good team here at the B. O. B. Folks work pretty well together, most of the time?” Another very slight nod. “I mean, excepting the reclaimers….” The faintest hint of a smile. “Oh, I see. Do you think they’ll respond to this sort of thing?” No expression either way. “Well, I sure hope I get to work with them in some of the team-building activities. It’d be a real honor.”

“Perhaps,” was all she would say.

“Well, thanks again for the opportunity. Working for you has been one of the best things I’ve done in my career.”

A rare genuine smile crossed the Director’s face.

“You’re welcome, Brad. Keep up the good work.”


	2. Off to Camp

“A ropes course, Captain?” asked Lucretia. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“It’s standard procedure for new teams, whether it’s a good idea or not.” From his tone, Lucretia thought maybe he wasn’t sure it was a good idea either. “We do this, and then we get to the real training. It’ll just be a few weeks before the initial mission, anyway.”

“I’ll let everybody know where to meet up.”

“Thanks, Lucretia; you’re really going beyond your role for this already.”

She beamed. She was so excited to be working for Captain Davenport, so excited to be chosen for this mission. But then Lucretia looked at the list again, and thought about telling everybody that they had to go on a “team building” retreat, and she sighed.

 

They were in a cabin with four bedrooms: the Captain had his own, of course, and the guys were split into two pairs, and then Lucretia was set up to room with Lup. Lucretia was early, because “early is on time, and on time is late.” She didn’t want to pick a bunk without asking, though, so she put her bag down, settled into the folding chair in the corner, and took out her journal.

Eventually, Lup’s head poked in, and she turned to shout into the common area, “Hey bro, looks like we’ve got matching boy and girl nerd roomies!”

Lucretia tried for as serious a look as she could, given that she had been hunched over her journal, as Lup came into the room.

“Hello,” and she stood and held out her hand.

“Hey. Lucretia, right? You were at the interview. Very profesh. I don’t mean anything by the whole ‘nerd’ thing, promise. I figured a scene like this would be, you know, 80% nerd?”

Lucretia decided that was some sort of elven version of an apology.

“Sure. It’s nice to have another woman on the team.”

“Oh hell yeah.” She threw her bag on the floor and regarded the bunk bed. “How polite are you? You fucking waited until I got here to pick a bunk. What a champ!” She leaned in close, her eyes twinkling. “But you cannot let Taako know that you’re a pushover. At all. Swear to all the gods. You will literally never know the end of it.”

 

“I have never ever ever as long as I have lived had a dinner this bad,” said Taako.

“Dunno,” said Magnus, “Seemed alright to me.”

Taako spun on his heel, somehow while still moving forward, which Lucretia would not have thought possible, but there he was, staring down their security guy, well, staring up at their security guy. 

“What? Food's food and there was plenty of it.”

“Ugh are you kidding?!” Magnus just shrugged. “Swear I'm going to complain all the way to the top about this…”

“Koko, you don't need to do that.” His sister put a hand on his shoulder.

“Lu. Lulu?”

“Don't get me wrong, it's abominable. I'm not a heathen like some meatheads” and she threw a withering look at Magnus “but you know living well is the best revenge.”

“Go on…”

“There's a kitchen in the cabin, dingus.”

The twins high-five, then took off at top speed, covering the remaining distance in mere moments. 

Barry looked around at the others. 

“What the hell just happened?”

By the time the remaining five walked in the door, the twins were already ransacking the tiny kitchen, piling dry goods on every possible surface. Davenport took one look at the scene, swooped down on a bottle of wine they'd uncovered, and headed back outside. 

“I'll be by the lake,” he said. “Don't burn the campground down while I'm gone.”

Lucretia went outside, leaving Taako and Lup holding court, cooking up a storm for an audience of Magnus, who leaned against the tiny countertop and dove fingers into dough when he thought the twins weren’t looking, and Barry, who hung back in a bedroom doorway, fidgeting with a corner of his robe.

Merle sat on a bench on the cabin’s porch, looking out towards the lake. He took a pipe and a pouch out of his jacket and began filling the pipe. Without really looking at her, he said, “You’re more than welcome to have a sit-down while everybody’s being all rowdy like.”

“Thank you, Dr. Highchurch,” she said, settling herself beside him.

“No need for formality, little lady. Merle is fine.”

He struck a match against the bench and lifted the flame to the pipe. A few puffs, then breathing out, a cloud of pungent smoke enveloped them. Lucretia coughed. 

“Sorry, missy.” He held the smoldering pipe out to her. “Care for a bit?”

“I can't say that I ever have?”

He nodded thoughtfully, and took another toke. 

“Alright, here,” and he gently explained how to hold the pipe, how to sip air from the side of her mouth, to hold it in and then breathe carefully…. 

And still she coughed loudly, squinting and bending double on the bench. Merle pounded on her back, which didn't help at all. 

“Sorry,” she wheezed.

Taako stepped out, his neon blue crop top smudged with flour and cocoa. 

“Ha! You're holding out on us, old man!”

He snatched the pipe out of Merle's hand and took a long drag. 

Blowing a stream of smoke into the cabin, he said, “Hey Lup, guess who's got the good shit?”

“Hmmmm, the cleric of Pan?”

“Got it in one.” He passed her the pipe, but she wrinkled her nose at it.

“Ugh, nothing left.” She neatly tapped the ash out into the sink and strode out onto the porch. “Sorry my baby bro ran off with your pipe, my man. Seeing as how you're sharing, though….”

Merle chuckled.

“Of course. Plenty to go around, especially for a polite young woman like yourself.”

Lucretia giggled.

“Are you saying I’m not polite?” said Lup as she handed Merle back his pipe.

“I’m just…” Lucretia blushed. “I’m not….” She looked down at her hands, out towards the lake, anywhere but right into Lup’s face. “I’unno. I guess? No?”

“P’shaw.” Lup tousled her hair. “Lookit you. Hey Merle, babe, you gotta get this one fucked up more often. It’s hella cute.” She took back the refilled pipe in one hand and dragged Lucretia into the cabin by the elbow with the other. 

Merle nodded at them and took a joint out of yet another jacket pocket, lighting it and puffing away while watching the stars twinkle out over the treetops. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Early is on time and on time is late" was a saying of my grandfather's. (Not the one who Merle reminds me of, the other one.)


	3. Moonlight Interlude

“Do you wonder what we'll see out there?” Laying in the bottom bunk, Lucretia's giggles and munchies had passed, leaving her with the feeling of floating several inches above her body. 

“I mean, sure,” said Lup. “That's why we're here, right?”

“Yeah, but like, specifically? What do you think is out there? In the outer planes? What if we end up in, I don't know, a plane of mud or something?”

“Yuck. That's gross. I mean, personally? I'm hoping to see the plane of magic. Imagine all that arcane energy! Or I dunno, it'd be cool to see the plane of elemental fire, from a distance anyway.”

“I've always wondered about the astral plane….”

“What, like ghosts and shit?” Lup leaned over the bunk to look at Lucretia, and in the darkness her eyes glowed slightly. “You're not into, like, necromancy, are you Luce?”

“Naw, I just took intro as a prereq. But you gotta admit it'd be interesting.”

Lup flopped back onto her bunk. 

“I guess. Seems like the dead wouldn't be too much fun though.”

Lucretia hummed thoughtfully, and then giggled again, imagining Lup and Taako trying to cook for a flock of ghosts. So maybe the giggly phase hadn't entirely passed.

“Aren't humans supposed to, you know, sleep?” said Lup.

“Yeah, supposed to. Can't yet, though. Nervous, maybe?”

“Sheesh. It'll be fine. Just ride the body high, kiddo, and get some rest.”

Lucretia turned to her side and stared out the window at the moon, pale in the dark night sky, and imagined drifting there, in space, until sleep finally claimed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I'm just amusing myself with the idea of Lup being freaked out by Lucretia being into necromancy.


	4. Good Morning

As she woke, Lucretia sniffed the air: pancakes? Eggs? Bacon? Smelled heavenly, and very close. When she sat up, she realized she was alone in the bunkroom. Had she overslept? She stumbled out in her pyjamas to see Magnus once again at the counter with Lup and Taako facing him, Davenport sitting at the table with a plate heaped high with breakfast foods. Magnus grinned at her around a mouthful of food.

“G’morn’n.”

“Jeezy creezy,” said Taako, “has no one ever told you not to talk with your mouth full?” He cleared his throat dramatically. “Captain Davenport, how did we get such a mannerless lunk?”

Davenport looked up from his plate, and with the slightest raised eyebrow said, “All of you have relevant skills for this mission.”

Magnus swallowed, then said, “Just wanted to be polite.”

Taako snorted. “Spitting out pancake: opposite of polite.”

“I’m not the last one up, am I?” said Lucretia.

“Almost,” said Taako. “Merle’s still out, but Barry’s just in the shower.”

“I think we’re mostly early risers!” said Magnus.

Taako waved a hand: “Elves just don’t sleep, you know.”

“Speak for yourself, dingus,” said Lup. “A good sleep’s pretty fucking sweet. But so’s breakfast.”

She offered Lucretia a plate.

“Wow, there was bacon in the cooler?”

The twins looked at each other with matching devious smiles.

“Uhhhhhh, something like that,” replied Lup.

“I thought I saw you while I was out for my run,” said Magnus.

“Oh, probably just some other elves,” said Taako.

“Yeah, sure, I bet there’s a bunch of other teams here,” added Lup.   
Lucretia glanced at Davenport, who very subtly shook his head, with the hint of a smile below his mustache.

Then Barry came out into the front room, already in jeans and t-shirt, his damp hair slicked back, at the same time that Merle emerged from the other direction, clad only in boxers, scratching at his wild beard. And in a few moments, all seven were loaded down and eating.

“Better than that nasty mess hall, am I right?” said Taako.

“Yes, yes, everyone knows you’re the greatest,” replied Lup, as the rest of the crew mumbled their assent with full mouths.

“Hey,  _ we _ are the greatest, sis.”

She pointed finger guns at him as Magnus offered a high-five.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's taken me a while to get back into this headspace! But here we are, with pancakes.


	5. Balance Beam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I have no idea how many chapters I'm going to end up with, especially if they're all this short. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

The two halflings in matching camp shirts and enthusiastic smiles had hardly finished explaining the first challenge before Magnus hopped up onto the log suspended on cables just above the ground.

“Piece of cake: let’s do this thing,” he said. “Cap’n’port?”

Davenport gave a curt nod and stepped up beside him. There was no way they could hold hands, so the gnome just rested a hand on Magnus’ knee and held out the other. Merle took it and gingerly stepped up. Then Barry followed; he had to sort of crouch to reach Merle’s hand, and the log swayed as the four of them tried to find their balance. Lup jumped with a little running leap, but landed with too much force, and Barry hesitated before grabbing her hand, so both of them went tumbling backwards, almost taking the others with them. But Merle let go at the last minute. Magnus gripped the cable tight, and Davenport just bent his knees and leaned into the swaying of the log.

“Hey there kids, you wanna try that again?” said Merle. 

“You’re doing great!” said one of the halflings.

“Excellent teamwork!” added the other.

Barry stood, brushing dirt off of his jeans before offering a hand to Lup, who just grinned and stood on her own.

“Don’t worry about me, nerd, I got this,” she said, and this time just stepped up with a hand on Merle’s shoulder. “Gotta love that dwarven center of gravity.” She held out a hand to Barry. “Try it again, Bluejeans.”

Barry looked at her hand for much longer than seemed appropriate to the situation before taking a deep breath, squaring his shoulders, taking the offered hand, and then stepping the few centimeters up onto the log. Lup winked and he coughed, almost toppling again, but the five of them managed to stay up this time.

They looked at Taako and Lucretia, who gave each other similarly skeptical looks.

“After you, bubeleh,” said Taako.

“I mean, if you want to stand with your sister….”

He shrugged.

One of the halflings said, “Remember, it’s ‘challenge by choice’, you don’t have to do anything you don’t ready for!”

Lup and Taako rolled their eyes in near-unison. Lucretia sighed.

“C’moooooon,” said Magnus.

“I gotcha, Luce,” said Barry. She very carefully stepped up next to him and grabbed onto the cable holding the other end of the log. The wire dug into her palm. She let go and held out a hand to Taako, who walked over, pacing back and forth in front of the other six, and then started drifting up into the air.

“Koko, jeez. Drama much?” said Lup.

Then Magnus just reached out with his free hand and grabbed Taako’s ankle, pulling the levitating elf towards him. The whole assemblage — the log and all seven of them — began swaying wildly. Lucretia grabbed at the cable again. Barry’s arms started flailing, even as he still held Lucretia and Lup’s hands.

“I think we’re good, I think it counts, just jump,” said Davenport, as they all tumbled off in different directions.

“Ok!” said one of the halflings. “Nice work!”

“Let’s go to the next challenge!” said the other, leading the team along the forested path, Magnus still holding Taako by the leg as he floated above them with his arms crossed.


	6. Challenges

Magnus towed the floating Taako to the next challenge, which involved passing everyone through a hoop suspended a few feet up in the air. 

“Push me through before this wears off,” said Taako to Magnus, before the guides could even speak. 

“You can't levitate yourself through the whole course, Koko,” said Lup. 

“Watch me,” he replied, as Magnus gave him a push directly at the hoop. He sailed through and drifted a bit into the trees before the spell wore off and he settled to the ground.

“Gonna run outta spell slots,” she shouted. He just stuck his tongue out at her.

“Well. Hm.” The halflings looked back and forth between Taako and the rest of the team.

“I can hoist everyone else through!” said Magnus. “Come on, let’s do this thing!” 

“Don’t you want to hear….”

“Nope!” He interlaced his hands and knelt down. “Who’s first?”

“Let’s do this, big boy,” said Lup. She looked through the hoop and raised an eyebrow at Taako. “You got me, baby bro? I mean, I’mma be fine, but just in case?”

“Not the baby, but yeah.”

She took a running leap at Magnus’ clasped hands and he hoisted her through. Somehow they managed to high-five while doing it and she also winked as she spun around, cast feather fall, and landed facing the group.

“Nice work, Lulu. I give it an 8 out of 10,” said Taako, while Magnus gave a whistle. Lucretia and Merle simply applauded as Barry stood in stunned silence, blushing furiously. 

As soon as Magnus got back in position, Davenport ran at him and just cannonballed through without a pause, tucking, rolling, and landing like a cat. Barry and Lucretia clambered up and through adequately but awkwardly, with enough people on the landing side to help them stabilize. Getting Merle to the ground safely took nearly the whole team offering hand-holds and bracing. 

Then before anyone could react, Magnus had sprinted backwards and then ran at the hoop. One of the guides shouted a warning, and Lucretia's head snapped up. He was barreling through and she was sure he'd just fall to the ground and take whatever bruises came from that. 

She flicked her wrist: Tenser’s Floating Disc, not as elegant as Levitate or Feather Fall, but steady enough to hold him. 

He grinned at her, laying splayed out on his belly. She slowly lowered the magical platform as he scrambled into a sitting position, then jumped off.

“Wow, cool!”

 

Taako made a great show of not even trying to catch anyone on the trust fall, except for Lup, who gave him a frown and a flick on the forehead, until the next to last of them: Magnus, who was so big that it literally took all of them to keep him from falling all the way to the ground. 

But instead of putting out his arms, Taako cast feather fall. Still, Magnus was delighted, laughing at the feel of the magic slowing his descent. 

Taako went dead last, his eyes flickering between the members of the team as if to ask whether any of them would catch him, being as how he hadn't bothered. Then he fell backwards, except halfway down, he just hovered. Levitating, again. Lup sighed loudly. 

“Taako.”

“Lup.”

She muttered something that sounded much like the reverse of his casting, and he rapidly dropped. 

Magnus hadn't so much as budged, and his arms wrapped around Taako before he'd fallen so much as an inch.

“It is supposed to be a group effort,” said one of the guides. 

“Lup got him to actually fall,” said Magnus, “I just grabbed him.” He turned a winsome smile at Taako, who was uncharacteristically speechless, but also smiling, hesitantly.

 

Lucretia hesitated on the third rung up, just past the point where she could have jumped back down to the ground easily. She looked the rest of the the way up the pole. It was a long way up. Everyone else had gone already, up to the top of the pole and down the zipline to the far end of the clearing. 

Davenport had gone first on that one, scrambling to the top with almost unnatural speeding, and laughing the whole way down. Barry had hesitated for a long time, until Magnus put a hand on his shoulder and just nodded once with great sincerity. Even Taako had managed it, the only challenge that there was no way to Levitate out of, climbing up with a look of grim determination, a sly smile slipping onto his face as he zipped down.

The guide below her gave her an encouraging smile, but somehow it just made her more aware of the distance to the ground. This is entirely safe, she thought. You have a harness. This is a thing people do every day. And besides, you have magic, most of the people with you have magic. Worst comes to worst, you have a cleric right there. 

She closed her eyes and clung to the little metal hooks on the side of the pole, trying to steady her breathing. If she couldn’t do this, climbing a goddamn pole in the woods, what in the nine hells was she doing going into interplanar space?

She opened her eyes and looked not down at the ground, but over at the team. Her boss, Davenport, with the steady eyes. Professor Highchurch: no, Merle, mindlessly braiding a long stalk of grass into his beard. Barry’s nervous half-smile. The twins, Taako draped over Lup’s shoulder as if she were keeping him upright. And then Magnus’ big crooked grin: “Yeah Lucy, you got this!”

And with one more deep breath, she reached for the next rung.


	7. Debrief

Technically, it was already morning, but although Magnus on one side of her had loaded up on three different kinds of meat and a huge mess of eggs, and on the other side, Lup was digging into a perfectly golden waffle, to Lucretia, it still felt like the middle of the night, and that meant ice cream. With chocolate syrup. And whipped cream.

Davenport had found the dive bar that preceded the diner: turned out this is a special talent he has, at least according to Merle, who kept joshing him about some famous incident among the IPRE staff. And more surprisingly to Lucretia, he had found a dive bar with a karaoke night, where he brought down the house singing a romantic power ballad.

Meanwhile, the twins had persuaded Magnus not to fight a loudmouth who was talking shit about Cap’n’Port’s singing, mostly by distracting him long enough to get him into a game of pool. They had given him back his shoes, eventually, although Taako had said it was only because Magnus’ boots didn’t have any  _ style, bubbale _ .

Barry had drunk probably too much cheap beer while watching Lucretia sketch the scene: two slightly different versions, one in each journal. “Gonna record everything we do?” he’d asked. “That’s my job, I guess.” And Merle had jumped in, coming back from the dance floor, where he was “rocking out” to something horrifically twangy: “You get a drawing of me in there?” She’d made a noncommittal noise, but that seemed to bring everyone over to look until she was surrounded by compliments and suggestions. Barry had apologized later for attracting so much attention, although really it wasn’t his fault at all.

They weren’t even supposed to be there. They were supposed to be doing a scheduled evening team-building exercise and debriefing after the challenge course. But Taako had complained about the food again, and Magnus had complained about sitting inside, and Merle had joked about a dive bar. Then Lup noticed the camp wagon with the keys still inside, and at that point even Davenport, their captain and supposedly in charge, even he couldn’t stop them. And Lucretia thought that maybe he hadn’t really wanted to anyway.

It had been the first time most of them had ever seen Dav drive. Merle tried to warn them: not that he’d seen it either, but apparently it was notorious among the TSU faculty. Lucretia had ridden with him, and honestly, riding along with Davenport on errands was one of her favorite parts of working for the captain. As he sped through the forest towards town, she looked back at the others: Magnus’s eyes met hers, and though her smile was sly and his was broad, they shared that sense of glee. Right up until Davenport took the turn into town way too fast and everyone had pitched up against everyone else: which is when Magnus had started literally whooping and she had dissolved into giggles.

But after that, and after karaoke, an averted fistfight, pool, more karaoke, some dancing, and probably too many drinks, all any of them wanted was whatever food was available at three in the morning. Which is how Lucretia found herself digging into a wide metal bowl with four different flavors of ice cream while Lup stole a layer of whipped cream for her waffle. They clinked spoons — a toast of sorts — as the team ate in companionable silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went to a karaoke birthday party this summer and saw a dude who was 100% Davenport belt out [All By Myself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzoazPPC7b8). I just wish I'd gotten good video of it.


	8. Another Time, Another Team

As they came down the hill from the Trial of Teamwork, Avi clapped Johann on the shoulder. “Good job with those Dissonant Whispers, man. Leon, nice work, you’ve got some sick tumbling moves!” The gnome gave a little nod of the head. “And boss, I didn't even know Shield could work like that.”

“I've been around; I know a few tricks.”

“You should come train with us, whip everybody into shape.”

A very faint smile.

“Perhaps.”

Her head tilted ever so slightly as Magnus’ voice came booming across the lawn.

“Do we need a pen?!” 

At the same time, Taako’s mage hand scrawled out a signature on the signup sheet, even though the wizard himself stood only a few yards away. Lup would've given him so much grief for being so lazy, she thought.  _ Don't think about Lup. _

And then Merle, barely able to reach the board, gripping the pen too tight and scratching out his name, his brows drawn together in obvious irritation. At least he liked making lanyards yesterday, and in her mind’s eye unbidden: a hideous trinket of seashells on her desk.

Brad gave her a discreet thumbs-up, and she tried to respond with a small tight smile, but Avi drew her into a hug. Even Johann was laughing, that low dry chuckle, and Leon’s usual tension had loosened.

“Never mind those dicks,” Leon said, as he caught her looking at Brad and the others. “They’ll fuck it up and come through fine anyway.”

“Yeah, fuck those guys,” said Johann. “This is the cool team.”

She couldn’t help herself: she let out a long rolling laugh somewhere on the edge of hysterics, even if the others couldn’t tell.

“That’s our boss,” said Avi. “Best boss on the moon.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” She shook her head, still laughing as they walked together out of the Enclave of Cooperation.

“Oh look,” said Johann. “Your ward Davenport brought ice creams from the trading post.”

“Davenport!” His voice rang out clear in the bright spring air. She swallowed heavily and closed her eyes. A dingy diner countertop. A bowl of ice cream. Seven teammates in red.

“Well, that’s not how that’s supposed to go,” he’d said, “but I think this is a better way to become a team anyway.”

When she looked at her bureau members again, her smile no longer touched her eyes.

In the distance: “Good luck! And great teamwork!”

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally Iz's idea IIRC, but thanks as always to the whole WDA crew for some excellent goofing.


End file.
